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Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library was established by the “Varna Book Society” in 1883 with the generous donations of prominent public figures and patriots from the city. Among the founders of the library are Krastyu Mirski, Haralan Angelov, Nikola Zhivkov, Panayot Kardzhiev, Mihail Koloni and others. Since 1887, it has been the City Municipal Library, and by state decree of June 22, 1966, it was named after the great Bulgarian poet Pencho Slaveikov. By decree of the Council of Ministers of July 28, 2000, it is a regional cultural institute. It successfully combines its role as a depository of the Bulgarian national literature with the mission of being the main engine in the search and application of innovations in the information society.

As a leading cultural institution in the city of Varna, the library is charged with key functions and responsibilities supporting human development and progress: educational, informational, social and cultural.

Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library is a member of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association, the Balkan Libraries Union, participates as a partner in various programs of non-governmental organizations and cultural institutes. The largest library in the region has a universal collection containing over 900,000 library documents.

Since 1990, the technological processes of library document processing, as well as reader service, have been fully automated. The online version supports:

  • catalog of books in Bulgarian and foreign languages;
  • catalog of periodicals;
  • thematic reference – bibliographic files;
  • card file Varna and Varna region;
  • catalog of rare and valuable collections.

The modern appearance of the public library is also manifested in the new forms that have replaced the traditional library service:

  • electronic registration system;
  • maintenance of reader cards in electronic format;
  • identification of library documents by barcode;
  • electronic request for documents;
  • interlibrary borrowing and receiving documents from other libraries in the country and abroad;
  • request for bibliographic references.

Since 2016, points for self-borrowing and self-return of books, an electronic reader’s card, a personalized virtual space for readers – MY LIBRARY – have been available to readers.

In 2020, the first librarian assistant chatbot in the country will start working. The virtual assistant is called ELI and performs the function of an additional employee in providing information on topics of interest to readers – both professional and general. The chatbot makes it possible to take full advantage of technologies that effectively save time.

In 2021, a service – BiblioMat – was introduced, through which readers receive the ordered books at a time convenient for them, during working days, weekends and holidays, 24/7, without entering the library.

The newest service, introduced in 2024, VeloLIBRARY is a continuation of the “Green Idea” development and sustainability concept of the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library. With the innovative approach to reach the reading community in a new and different way, the library goes out of the ideal center and goes to the users who have difficulty visiting the library building physically or live in more remote areas of the city.

Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library participates in the implementation of a number of projects that assist and support its transformation into a modern, cultural institute, carrying out a direct, immediate dialogue with its readers.

The responsibility for the preservation of the literary cultural heritage, as well as its popularization, is of primary importance for the Varna Library. VARNA DIGITAL LIBRARY is the most significant project in this area. It includes various documents – photographs from the end of the 19th – 20th centuries, postcards, photos of people, events and buildings – emblematic of Varna and the region, as well as periodicals published after 1880 in Varna and owned by the library, cultural institutes from the city, community centers from the region, as well as private collectors. The collection brings together both digitized documents and metadata with analytical descriptions of the artifacts. With the project launched in 2008, the library also participates in Europe’s largest digital library – EUROPEANA, and since 2017 has been an aggregator of data from partner cultural organizations in the country.

The library pays special attention to continuing education – not only of library specialists, but also of its readers. The participation of the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library – Varna in the Lifelong Learning – 2007-2013 program of the EC is significant with several initiatives that have turned into sustainable practices over the years. The Erasmus+ program is the next challenge accepted by the library team. Within the framework of the program, the library works on projects related to the development of new virtual services proposed by the readers themselves.

Another significant and ongoing project implemented by the library is the participation in the “Global Libraries” program, which aims to transform public libraries into centers providing easy and equal access to information, knowledge, communications and electronic services.

A focus in the activity of the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library is also the work with the Google generation, whose attention is delicately directed to the pleasure of communicating with the book through a series of initiatives that have already become a tradition. Emblematic is the “Reading People’s Marathon” launched in 2003 in Varna, which later developed into a national campaign “Reading Bulgaria” and the “A Fairytale Night in the Library” that has always accompanied it over the years.

Adolescent reading initiatives aim to focus attention on reading as a fundamental process for literacy development, knowledge acquisition and skill acquisition. “Vacation in the library” is an initiative that provokes a different way of communicating with students.

The publishing activity is an integral part of the portfolio of the library, which is among the pioneers in the creation of electronic bibliographies in Bulgaria. They can be found online here.

For its purposeful and multifaceted activity, the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library also receives worthy awards:

  • 1997 – “Varna” award – For publishing and local history activities and popularizing the culture and history of the city.
  • 2003 – “Varna” award – For contribution to enriching the literary life of the city and for its role in raising the culture of reading.
  • 2004 – 2 awards “Hristo G. Danov” – For achievements in the field of library work and for the multimedia bibliographic index Pencho Slaveykov – the first electronic bibliographic index in the country (category “Electronic publishing and new technologies”)
  • 2006 – “Hristo G. Danov” award in the category “Libraries and library work”.
  • 2010 – the director of the library, Dr. Emilia Staneva-Milkova, was awarded by the Ministry of Culture for her contribution to the development of Bulgarian culture on the occasion of May 24 – the Day of Bulgarian Education and Culture and of Slavic Writing.
  • 2014 – Library of the Year – award of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association.
  • 2016 – the director, Dr. Emilia Staneva-Milkova, a new prestigious award – Winner of enlightenment 2016 in the category “They – the bearers of enlightenment”.
  • 2018 – “Seal of Tsar Simeon the Great” award
  • 2020 – award for civic contribution in the field of education and spiritual development, awarded to the Children’s and Secondary School Complex of the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library – Varna by the “Open Society” club.
  • 2023 – Honorary badge of merit to Varna – gold for the successful mission of the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library in preserving and popularizing the literary wealth. Award of the Municipality of Varna on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the library.

Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library is one of the first cultural institutions in Bulgaria and the first library with an active Cyrillic domain. In 2017, the name BIBLIOTHEKA-VARNA.BG was registered.

The library is actively present on the Internet, communicating daily with readers through social networks, maintaining its own profiles on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

The team of the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library – Varna is proud of building an institution that successfully realizes the vision of a modern, contemporary library, where the real and the virtual, the traditional and the innovative, intertwine.